Pressure from investors mounted Friday on Yahoo (YHOO) to fire its new CEO Scott Thompson over his erroneous résumé, even as experts disagreed about the impact the incident might have on the struggling Internet company.

One of the Sunnyvale company's key investors and a persistent critic, Dan Loeb of New York-based Third Point, demanded that Thompson be canned and that the company by Monday disclose details related to the inaccurate résumé, including whether board members previously had been aware of it. His call for the ouster of Thompson, who became CEO in January to succeed the fired Carol Bartz, was joined by another investor, Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital.

Some experts also said the misstated résumé could put Yahoo in legal trouble. But it wasn't clear how serious a problem that posed, and other experts said the firm's board might resist tossing Thompson because finding a replacement might prove more onerous than keeping him.

"If the chorus of naysayers asking for his head continues, then I think the likelihood of him being fired will increase," said Karsten Weide of research firm IDC. "It makes life a lot more difficult than it already is for Yahoo." But because of the hassles involved in hiring a new CEO, he added, "they're probably going to hold on to him."

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Besides, noted Rick Munarriz, senior analyst at the Motley Fool, "it would be very hard to find someone of a better caliber" than Thompson. After all, he said, "who would want to be CEO at Yahoo right now, knowing that they would be under this kind of scrutiny."

In addition to ousting former CEO Bartz and seeing its revenue and profit slump in recent years, Yahoo last month said it was cutting 2,000 jobs and consolidating operations. Moreover, Yahoo has come under withering fire from some investors, including Loeb, who in the spring launched a proxy fight for four seats on Yahoo's board.

Then Thursday, Yahoo acknowledged that Thompson did not have the computer science degree he claimed to have from Stonehill College near Boston and that the company was launching a review of the matter. It termed the falsehood, which has been repeated in the company's regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an "inadvertent error." Thompson earned an accounting degree from the school.

Yahoo's response didn't sit well with Loeb, who had alerted the company to Thompson's résumé problem and who on Friday denounced Yahoo's response as "insulting to shareholders." Calling the falsehood inadvertent "is, in our view, the height of arrogance," Loeb declared in a letter to Yahoo's board. "CEOs have been terminated for less at other companies."

Loeb, whose company owns 8.1 percent of Yahoo's shares, also said he "will consider it grounds for further action" if the board fails to take additional steps by noon Monday. That includes thoroughly disclosing "the process by which it vetted Mr. Thompson as a potential CEO candidate" and whether any board members were "aware of Mr. Thompson's deception" before Third Point complained about it Thursday.

Loeb also demanded that the board "terminate Mr. Thompson for cause immediately given his demonstrable unsuitability to remain chief executive officer" and "accept the resignation" of board member Patti Hart, who led the search committee that picked Thompson. Loeb has complained that Yahoo also misrepresented Hart's résumé in a SEC filing that said she holds a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics from Illinois State University. Her degree actually is in business administration with a specialty in marketing, Yahoo said Thursday.

"I think Thompson's got to go," added investor Jackson in an interview Friday. "Putting shareholders aside, I don't know how any engineer at Yahoo could listen to that guy from now on and not think in the back of their mind, why in the heck would you make up that you studied computer science?"

Several experts said the misrepresentation about Thompson's background could create legal problems for him and Yahoo.

Thompson's biography claiming a degree in computer science was included in a regulatory document Yahoo filed with the SEC on April 17, along with Thompson's certified statement that it "does not contain any untrue statement."

Lee Altschuler, former chief of the Silicon Valley branch of the U.S. attorney's office in Northern California, considered it unlikely that the filing would result in criminal charges, but that the company could face shareholder lawsuits over the inaccuracy.

Although the misrepresentation might be a criminal violation, Stephen Diamond, a Santa Clara University law professor, agreed that it would be extremely unusual for authorities to file charges and that the SEC might be more inclined to investigate whether it was a violation of civil law. He said the federal agency probably will closely watch how Thompson and Yahoo respond now that the issue has been raised, to assess if the company is taking it seriously.

From his experience as a corporate board member and adviser, Diamond said standard practice at most companies calls for directors and officers to each fill out a biographical questionnaire, which is confirmed by legal or human resources officials. Yahoo has an obligation to check these things to "defend the corporation against any potential fraud," he said.

Diamond added that it's unclear if Thompson's resignation would be needed to satisfy the SEC, but he predicted Yahoo's board will push for Thompson's departure, to maintain its own credibility with investors for the upcoming proxy fight.

"They've shot themselves in the foot," he said, adding that the board can only heal its self-inflicted wound by changing leadership. "They can't afford this distraction in a proxy fight."

Stanford law professor Robert Daines said the SEC might choose to let the issue play out in the proxy fight, since investors like Loeb are pressing the issue. But Daines agreed that it's likely Thompson will have to resign.

"It certainly doesn't look good for the CEO to be lying on his résumé, if that's what happened," he said. "I don't know how you survive that. I don't know how the board would trust the CEO after that."